Premium Expert briefings Using 'challenge prizes' to develop great innovation policy. It's not about the winners, but diverse solutions to a well-defined problem Friday June 28, 2019 By Tris Dyson and Oliver Cansdell Features Margarine, canned goods and modern billiard balls all resulted from national innovation challenges. After fuelling much of the competition that defined the early 20th century… Read more
Premium Columnists The accountability trap: how to avoid low trust and low performance because everyone’s shifting responsibility and protecting themselves, not collaborating Wednesday June 26, 2019 By Nicholas Gruen Editors' Picks The buck stops with you and the problems start with you: Are you after accountability or accountability theatre?… Read more
We know WHAT we need to do. Will someone tell us HOW? Thursday March 21, 2019 By Nicholas Gruen Features When policy problems are complex, we need to understand and learn from the front line. Nicholas Gruen explains ways to improve the early, middle and… Read more
What is a ‘policy hack’? Wednesday January 23, 2019 By Nicholas Gruen Editors' Picks New ways of looking at our complex world can lead to policy hacks with clear and easily identifiable benefits. But do they stand apart from… Read more
Evaluation: moving beyond well-intentioned fads and towards a new professionalism Monday November 26, 2018 By Nicholas Gruen Editors' Picks An evaluator-general should lead a renewed focus on understanding the impact of government programs, independent of their delivery and insulated from the demand for appropriate… Read more
'Being evidence-based is really, really hard': shifting evaluation culture Friday June 15, 2018 By David Donaldson Editors' Picks Too often evaluation is an afterthought and the report sits in a drawer. Two experts discuss how to shift attitudes to make evidence-based policymaking meaningful. Read more
Nicholas Gruen: hacking wellbeing for the biggest returns Thursday October 19, 2017 By Nicholas Gruen Features There are some commonsense 'hacks' government could use to improve Australians' wellbeing, argues economist Nicholas Gruen. Read more
Nicholas Gruen: evaluation knowledge comes not from numbers, but questions Wednesday September 6, 2017 By Nicholas Gruen Features As policymakers look back for answers to what worked — like PM&C's $40m for evaluation of Indigenous programs — the pass/fail approach won't, in itself,… Read more
Six of the best: Martin Hoffman's frank guide to public service improvement Friday August 11, 2017 By Julian Bajkowski Editors' Picks Dump the jargon, tell the brutal truth and get over change fatigue. Martin Hoffman's vision of a high performing public service is frank, gutsy and… Read more
Nicholas Gruen: against strategy Monday March 27, 2017 By Nicholas Gruen Editors' Picks Not having enough time to talk strategy is a common gripe for organisations. Even when they do get the chance, it's often unproductive or ignored… Read more
A tale of two juries: shaping Infrastructure Victoria's 30-year strategy Friday March 17, 2017 By Victoria Draudins Case studies Infrastructure Victoria's experience shows citizen juries can play a vital role in delivering major milestones. This lends weight to the idea of institutionalising deliberative democracy. Read more
Detoxing Democracy 3: bringing citizen deliberation into government administration Tuesday February 21, 2017 By Nicholas Gruen Features DETOXING DEMOCRACY: Citizen deliberation is a powerful tool for legitimisation, but can it become institutionalised? Just as Yarra Valley Water consulted its community in… Read more
Detoxing Democracy 2: a mixed model of democracy for Australia Thursday February 16, 2017 By Nicholas Gruen Features DETOXING DEMOCRACY: The first essay in this series explored the case for deliberative democracy. What could deliberative democracy look like at the political… Read more
Artists' scheme: a good idea at the time, till it dodged own appraisal Monday December 5, 2016 By John R Walker & Nicholas Gruen Culture Not every policy will have the intended outcome, but we can respectfully evaluate what went wrong and learn from it. A stakeholder and an economist… Read more
Open source human services weaves a new way forward Tuesday September 6, 2016 By Nicholas Gruen & Chris Vanstone Features What does "open source human services" mean? Nicholas Gruen and Chris Vanstone explain The Australian Centre for Social Innovation's new Weavers project. Read more
